Club Events 2017

Club Events For 2017

Here you will find some information and additional photos, too numerous for The Wheel, of recent club outings, so you can relive the experience or see what you missed.

STHARC End Of Year function Sunday 10th December 2017

Terribly British Day Sunday 3rd December 2017

Queanbeyan Bus Interchange Carpark

by Allan Boyd (anyone with photos please)

Terribly British Day, warmly referred to by clubs as TBD, needed a new home and new organisers.

CACTMC, the Triumph Club, Southern Tablelands Heritage Automotive Restorers Club (STHARC) and other British marque clubs clubbed together to ensure the TBD tradition continued. Lawrie Nock on behalf of STHARC offered to approach Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) about holding the display in Queanbeyan Park, to which QPRC was agreeable. Horst Kirchner, organising committee Chairman (Triumph Club) actively promoted TBD as did CACTMC’s Graham Gittins.

The week leading up to TBD was in turns hot, muggy, showery, sunny, and so on. Saturday the heavens opened, torrential rain thunder and lighting, and back up arrangements were quickly instigated for TBD. The Queanbeyan Bus Interchange large carpark was made available by QPRC which gave access to TBD from early morning until late afternoon. TBD committee was grateful for QPRC’s ready cooperation to ensure the display proceeded.

Organisers were busy early on a cloudy, but dry Sunday morning to set up the new venue, put out quickly written up notices of change of venue around Queanbeyan, and to have members directing vehicles from the advertised venue to the Bus Interchange. One notice that tickled my humour was STAY CALM & CHANGE VENUE.

Despite a slow start of vehicles arriving, by 9am a steady stream of British cars and motorbikes arrived to quickly fill up available parking spaces. Organisers were rewarded with a varied representation from local clubs of British vehicles: including Armstrong Siddley, Ariel, Austin, BSA, Ford, Hillman, Humber, Landrover, MG, Mini, Morris, Rover, Rolls Royce & Bentley, Sunbeam, Triumph, Vauxhall, and Jaguar. The Jaguar Club celebrated its 70th year, and provided a magnificent display of old and new Jaguars; a drawcard for both participants and the public. STHARC’s contribution was not insignificant and the variety of vehicles a credit to our club.

As arranged Lawrie Nock collected the QPRC Deputy Mayor Trevor Hicks, his wife Julie and Derek Holyoake (aged 92) in the Rolls Royce Corniche for a Cooks tour of the display before parking and giving them the opportunity to admire the display, meet participants and select their choice of vehicle.

on-profit organisations and commercial vendors alike turned up to provide food, drinks, and vehicle parts to participants and the interested public, despite the earlier grim weather outlook. In fact the day remained dry and by lunchtime the clouds had mainly dispersed to be replaced with blue skies and bright sunshine; so warm that both Chris and I came home with sunburnt faces.

David Snape, NRMA Classic Insurance, drove from Sydney to lend his presence and Steve Farmer, Shannons Insurance, was there also – both representatives were available to answer classic insurance questions.

Thank you to Queanbeyan Palerang Regional Council for the venue and support for TBD.

STHARC Roll Call

Lawrie Nock Rolls Royce Corniche

Jane Nock 1960 Bentley S2

Max deOliver 1978 Mini Moke

David Torricke-Barton 1953 Morris Minor

Ian Oliver Bentley Mark VI

Tina Oliver Bentley S2

Ray & Barbara Malam 1976 Jaguar XJ6 (For Sale)

Chris Forsey 1969 Jensen Interceptor

Paul Cunneen 1937 Ford 7Y

Charlie Adams 1935 Austin Ten (For Sale

Trevor Corby 1965 Cortina GT

John Corbett 1948 Ford Pilot

Ian Pyett 1965 Hillman Minx

Ron & Anne Scattergood 1968 Humber Snipe

Mike Jones Sunbeam Alpine

Allan Boyd BSA motor bike

Peter & Ann Toet Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

Chris Hillbrick-Boyd Modern

Brian & Bernita Thomas Modern

Christine Browne Modern

Russell McKinley Modern

Ian Robinson Modern

Chris & Narelle O’Rourke Modern

Visitor:

Charles Chelliah Bentley Arnage

Queanbeyan Swap Meet 25th November 2017

STHARC Promotional Sites 12 & 13

by Allan Boyd

This Year STHARC Events Committee decided to have 2 sites at the Queanbeyan Swap Meet; one for the promotion/information enquiries and one to display a few of our club vehicles.

I took the VW Van (Green Dragon) to the sites on late Friday with the gazebos, tables etc on board and left it overnight ready for early Saturday morning set up.

Saturday I arrived at just after 6am on my heritage BMW motorbike to look around the Swap before Geoff Rudd with his beautiful Valiant car and John Kaczmerek arrived at about 7am to erect the gazebos etc, and all was ready by 7.30am.

Within an hour or so the lookers/buyers were coming through the gates thick and fast; parking was at a premium – Glebe Avenue was fully parked including the nature strip. More STHARC members arrived to help “ man” the site. We had many lookers and lots of enquiries about the NSW RMS HVS and CVS with such questions as “how do I join a club” and then lots of others such as “where can I buy certain parts?, wheels?, and restoration services?”. With our combined knowledge we answered them all and handed out our STHARC information sheet.

The vehicle display proved popular also; initially we displayed Geoff’s Valiant and my BMW bike, then Chris HB brought down “Ringo” our VW Beetle, later the Valiant was replaced by new member Paul Rodda’s Datsun Ute. All the vehicles had many enthusiastic admirers. Many STHARC members called in for a chat or to help look after the site for awhile; it was an enjoyable social day. By 3pm we were packed up and gone.

Thank you Geoff and John K for erecting and packing up the gazebos, as this is not a one man job.

STHARC Roll Call:

Allan Boyd BMW R60/2

John Kaczmerek

Geoff Rudd 1962 Valiant

Kerry & Kay Carratt

Max deOliver

John Corbett

Lawrie & Jane Nock

Chris Hillbrick-Boyd 1971 “Ringo” VW Beetle

Albert Neuss

Graham Bates

Paul Anderson

Malcolm Stewart

Paul Rodda Datsun Ute

Ron & Anne Scattergood

Paul Cunneen

Jeff Gill

Peter Toet 1930’s Packard

Simon & Jantje Brown

Russell McKinlay Corolla KE70

Rob Fulthorpe

Visitors: Col Hill

Braidwood Airing of the Quilts and Braidwood Motor Show Saturday 25th November 2017

Marques in the Park Sunday 12th November 2017

Another lovely spring day in Canberra and another great car show! The annual ‘Marques in the Park’ was held on Sunday 12 November at John Knight Memorial Park on the shore of Lake Ginninderra in Canberra. There was an impressive line-up of early Holdens and Fords, as well as some rare Japanese and American cars. This event tends to draw a sample of cars from a very wide range of clubs and is always an interesting event to attend. The venue is also fantastic and easy walking to cafes etc. STHARC members were present and had a great day out!

Photos & text thanks to Chris Forsey

Mid Week Run Garage Crawl to Chris Falsey’s Place Thursday 26th October 2017

Canberra All Japanese Car and Bike Show 8th October 2017

After several changes of date, the Japanese car and bike show was held on 8 October at Thoroughbred Park, Mitchell, ACT.

This year the event seemed a bit smaller than previous shows, but none the less good to see both older and newer Japanese models on display. Japanese cars appear to be gaining ground with collectors with several early model Mazda rotary engined cars present, as well as a mint condition Datsun 200B SSS and some early Toyota Celica’s. The line up of Nissan Stagea’s was impressive especially as this is a model not sold in Australia.

In recent years I have developed an interest in first generation Honda Legend models as the chassis design was developed jointly with the Rover company in the 1980s and resulted in the 1985 release of the first Honda Legend and Rover 825. These cars shared chassis and suspension design, with V6 engine and 4 speed auto or 5 speed manual transmission provided by Honda. There is no interchangeability in respect of body design as these were developed separately by Honda in Japan and Austin Rover Group in the UK. And whilst suspension design was shared, spring rates and suspension settings were set up more softly for Honda, whilst the Rover has a more sporting suspension set up. In 1989 engine sizes were increased from 2.5 litre to 2.7 litre and most cars in Australia were only provided with automatic transmissions.

Both companies made a number of variants to suit their respective markets. In respect of Honda, a 2.0 litre turbo version of the V6 engine was manufactured for the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) which featured a ‘wing’ turbo design – an example of which I now own. Known as the ‘KA5’ this model was never destined for the export market but several of these cars were subsequently exported around the world and several came to Australia. They produced in the region of 140kw compared to roughly 130kw of the normally aspirated 2.7 litre engine, although the purpose of the turbo installation was increase fuel efficiency and to reduce carbon emissions.

Japanese market Legends appear to be much higher specification that the Australian delivered Legends of the same era. They include power folding mirrors, climate control, higher levels of trim and trim options, and more external chrome. Bumper bar overhangs are much reduced to comply with Japanese vehicle size requirements, and the bonnet/grille is revised to make room for the turbo under the bonnet. Remembering that household interest rates in 1989 were pushing 17% or more, these cars were expensive at around $60-65k.

Photos & text thanks to Chris Forsey

STHARC at DRIVER REVIVER Sunday 1st October 2017

STHARC at Bungendore Car and Bike Show Saturday 30th September 2017

Photos thanks to Chris Forsey

STHARC Drive to Wee Jasper Saturday 16th September 2017

St Paul’s Anglican Church Burra – Spring Field Day Saturday 9th September 2017

Thursday 17th August 2017 STHARC Mid-Week Run to Peter and Anne’s Museum

We did this run as a mid week a few years ago and it met with a mixed response. Those who attended were delighted and those who for one reason or another couldn’t be there sought a re-run. This was the re-run. A mixed dozen of vehicles set out from the club house and we were joined along the way and at the destination by an additional half dozen or so.

Best idea for those who couldn’t be there, is to check out the pictures which were taken and should be on the website. There just isn’t enough newsletter to provide a detailed run down of what was there to see. With more than 20 people it was impossible to run a guided tour. There were numerous revisits to check out things which had been missed on the first inspection.

On arrival Peter had the BBQ fired up and water on the boil for tea and coffee. We had a good STHARC standard morning/afternoon tea table which was pretty well demolished. On the day, the marque attendance victory, ignoring motor bikes, went to Packard by a substantial margin.

Max thanked Peter and Anne for their hospitality and we were away soon after lunch.

Roll Call

Peter and Anne Toet whatever they chose to drive on the day and plenty to choose from

Wednesday 12th July 2017 STHARC Mid-Week Run to Albert’s.

Photos from David “Foo Man Chu” Buckley

Sunday 18th June 2017 Battle of Waterloo – Queanbeyan Park

18 June is an important date in the history of footwear and alcohol manufacture. On Sunday 18 June in 1815 three famous names of industry came together in infamous circumstances. The footwear manufacturers from England and Germany for some reason did not like the French spirits producer and had become engaged in a very serious conflict. It is a little bewildering that having failed to dominate in the dispute, the French spirits manufacturer is the one who is best remembered and holds the premium status in the commercial world.

The French brandy tycoon Napoleon was pitted against the German boot maker Blucher and the English wet weather boot specialist, Wellington. The outcome of the contest may have been to some extent predetermined by the overnight wet weather. The French side may have spent too much of the night indoors, out of the rain imbibing. The English and German opponents equipped with famous footwear had an added advantage on the battle field.

This commercial contest has been recorded in history as the Battle of Waterloo. The role of the German and other forces in the event is often forgotten or disregarded and the event is remembered, especially by the British as a great British victory. In the Capital Region of Australia the event has for many years been celebrated by motoring enthusiasts by re-enactments. Fortunately, on most occasions the celebrations have not been hampered by the heavy overnight rain which preceded the original event. The year 2017 was extremely special.

In most years the celebration of the Battle of Waterloo is scheduled for a Sunday mid June. Owners of French and British marque vehicles meet at a designated site with a view to reconsideration of the outcome of the original event. At midday the country of origin with the majority of vehicles present is declared the winner. In 2017 the event was held on Sunday 18 June. The predetermined site was the beautiful tree endowed grounds of Queanbeyan Park.

The opposing forces arrived on site and took their positions. The British forces had an early arriving undercover operator park his Jaguar inside the French lines and disappear. A later arrival Morgan managed to secure a position behind French lines. Both vehicles were seen and commented on by Napoleon longlegs from the house of Peugot. It was not possible to locate the spies involved and they were therefore not executed.

STHARC was well represented at the event. Lady Jane’s Bentley was used to camouflage over 200 cavalry horses. Their presence was proven by a deposit left on the drip tray beneath the engine. This was pointed out to Napoleon longlegs and it is thought that this may have helped, along with being outnumbered about 3 – 1 in the French surrender.

A beautiful winter’s day and a great introduction to the site for many motoring enthusiasts who had not previously experienced Queanbeyan Park as a venue. Thank you to the Peugot club for yet another great outing and to QPRC for being such accommodating hosts.